Categories: uncategorized
Date: 19 December 2005 08:44:13
This Guardian article is worth a read because it looks at the views of religon that are put forward in the paper and what the readers think.
The fact that the discussion is taking place at all is interesting. Most papers would accept that they have a mixture of views amongst their readership on this issue and should, to some extent, reflect them all. However, the Guardian, as the liberal paper of the left, knows that it has a significant percentage readers with really strong convictions on these matters. Whilst not all secular fundamentalists in the UK come from this perspective many do & similarly whilst not all liberal / radical believers come from this perspective many do. So it is this that in their "policy on religion" they have to balance this.
As the article points out from a Christian perspective this results in a situation we are happy with, we get to find out what the critics think is wrong with Christianity (& so we can examine the criticisms for where they are valid and where they illustrate we are merely understood) if we in turn ensure that we get to put our side of the story as well.
This is an important issue, because in a world where views are becoming increasingly polarised and their is a real need for people to just listen to alternative views and see where we have common ground, rather than just believe the stereotypes being thrown around, papers like The Guardian have an important role. They are papers which illustrate the common ground we have on social and political justice and highlight the desire that we and the hardcore secular / humanist section tend to have to stand up against oppression.
The last paragraph of the paper says, "We have to be aware that there are a lot of Guardian readers, with broadly the same worldview as the rest of us, who are happy to be Christians, and who are disappointed that the exaggeration of differences sometimes obscures what we all have in common. They have just as much right to be heard as others."
Perhaps as Christians in the UK we should affirm comments like that in the paragraph above but also have the courage, in the current environment to stand up and say that "We have to be aware that there are a lot of people in our society, with broadly the same worldview as us, who are happy to be humanists and atheists, and who are disappointed that the exaggeration of differences sometimes obscures what we all have in common. They have just as much right to be heard as others."